The 2020 Election’s Secret Weapon

Next month’s Iowa caucuses have presidential candidates scrambling to perfect a winning strategy. In the meantime, fourth quarter fundraising results are telling. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who has relied predominantly on small donors and grassroots organizing, led the pack with $34.5 million (Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who came in second, raised $24.7 million). The consistent success of Sanders’s strategy points to something crucially important—not just for the election, but for the future of American democracy. People, it is increasingly clear, want to play an active role in politics. They not only want change, but to spur that change.

Both parties are well aware of this enthusiasm—and are attempting to coax greater participation with increased resources. The Democratic National Committee launched Organizing Corps 2020, which trains young people of color to be future campaign organizers. On the other side, the Trump campaign started a training program for volunteers called the Trump Victory Leadership Initiative, which aims to drastically increase the number of trained volunteers compared to 2016.

This augmented community organizing strategy stems from the 2008 Obama campaign, which notably turned itself into a grassroots movement. The campaign trained approximately 3,000 full-time organizers, attracted 1.5 million volunteers, and established 700 field offices to McCain’s 400. That ground game, notes University of Denver’s Seth E. Masket, had a “measurable impact on the election, likely changing the results of several closely contested states.”

The Obama campaign’s community organizing legacy is particularly important for the current crop of 2020 candidates. The top four candidates already have over 30 campaign offices separately at the four early primary states; Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Mayor Pete Buttigieg have 47 offices each in the four states. While Sen. Bernie Sanders has fewer offices than the Warren and Buttigieg campaigns, his campaign organizes supporters outside of campaign offices.

Robust community organizing would do more than elect a candidate. The Obama campaign’s success lay not just in winning, but in galvanizing and empowering voters—something we need more than ever in this day and age.

So, how do we make citizens feel like essential political actors? That’s the question at the heart of the 2020 presidential election. Acknowledging and connecting to the community is a crucial first step: . According to Joy Cushman, the Obama’s campaign’s deputy field director in 2008, the campaign concentrated on is recognizing and including disenfranchised communities through analysis of voters’ preferences and physical contact with neighbors. Such efforts, indicates Cushman, are missing in many campaigns and field organizing efforts today.

This year’s election will be a critical turning point for democracy. As civic engagement and thirst for political involvement grow, the system must also evolve. Campaigns are important indicators of whether or not the current system will be able to accept and accommodate these changes—the more they can engage voices from the bottom up, the more likely it will be that an essential political shift can take place. Stifling of grassroots participation could have serious implications not only for individual campaigns, but for the future of political engagement and activism. So here’s hoping 2020 invests in a potent community organizing strategy—otherwise, it’s going to be a long, tough battle to maintain the health of our democracy.